Veterans mark graves for Memorial Day with American flags

May 28, 2012|

By Eloísa Ruano González, Orlando Sentinel

UMATILLA — Robert Ragin carefully combed the grounds of the Glendale Cemetery, looking for military service markers on the old headstones. He stopped to place small flags each time he ran across the burials of U.S. veterans, including some who served in the two world wars and the Civil War, at the graveyard on Maxwell Road.

"You need a good eye," said Ragin, a Vietnam War veteran and chaplain of American Legion Post 21 in Umatilla. "These are some old stones."

He and a handful of other post members planted and replaced more than 100 American flags in two local cemeteries in advance of Memorial Day. Ragin, a minister at the Jerusalem Worship Center in Umatilla who served in the Army from 1965 to '67, said they put up the flags to remind residents about the sacrifices these veterans made in serving their country.

"We do it for our love or our vets," the 67-year-old Umatilla resident said.

In addition to Glendale, the group visited Umatilla Cemetery off Golden Gem Drive, where dozens of flags waved in the light breeze on a particularly muggy day.

"Some have been killed in battle. Some have died normal deaths," said Richard Zinck, the Post 21 adjutant who spent 22 years in the Air Force. "We're here out of respect."

The post typically puts out the flags in advance of Veterans Day, said Zinck, 78, of Altoona. However, he said they ran out last year and decided to revisit the cemeteries and put flags on all the graves they previously missed for Memorial Day. Making her way around Glendale, Berneda Morith, president of the Post 21 Ladies Auxiliary, pressed a flag next to the burial marker of Army veteran Martin E. Stricklen.

"There are several ways to honor them [veterans]. This is one way to do it," Morith said.

However, she said she'd like to see more young people involved in decorating the veterans' graves and pay tribute to them, especially as American Legion members age.

"Let's hope the people left behind — their relatives — appreciate" their service, the 90-year-old Umatilla resident said. But few people pay attention to the servicemen's graves nowadays, Ragin said as he pulled out a faded flag from a plot and replaced it with a more vibrant one. Burial plots often are forgotten as people deal with their busy lives, he said.

He and Bob Lowery, Post 21 assistant adjutant, visited the grave of Marine Pvt. Robert M. McTureous Jr. at the Glendale Cemetery. The Altoona man received a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration, for his courageous sacrifice during World War II. The young Marine was killed saving fellow soldiers in a firefight with Japanese troops in Okinawa.

The post will hold a ceremony at 10 a.m. today at the McTureous Homestead Museum and Memorial Park on State Road 19 in Altoona.